FOCUS World Connects Military Families

The FOCUS (Families OverComing Under Stress) support program for Navy and Marine families had been expanding to Air Force and Army families for the past few years. The in-person program has found a new, more easily accessible home in the cyber world: FOCUS World, a virtual environment designed to help all members of the family communicate better.

The FOCUS World program takes place in a virtual, cozy, family home. Each user chooses an avatar, and a purple alien guides the user through different rooms-- the program has to attract children, after all. The different rooms serve different areas of the program: the Basement is where users give emotional check-ins, the Family Room is a message board and chat room, the Kitchen is where the family decides on goals, the Parent Study has more thorough, text-based resources for parents, and the Attic holds a summary of the whole program.

FOCUS hopes their virtual environment will help families who are not emotionally ready to discuss some things in person to overcome the stresses in their lives and achieve greater closeness. I think the set-up is exactly the right approach. The way the FOCUS World mimics a house promotes the spirit of family. It is friendly to kids, but not so simple that parents will not be interested, thanks to features like the Parent Study. Besides, parents who made the effort to sign up are likely interested in guiding their children through the process. Total family participation is not out of the question at all.

The live chat room is something quite special. This program serves military families for whom deployment is always a possibility and sometimes a fact of life. If the deployed parent has internet access, he or she can log in, enter the Family Room, post a message or see if anyone at home is online. No matter where they are, the whole family sees a virtual representation of something very much like what they get in their own house. FOCUS World could be a home away from home for some.

The use of avatars provides a level of virtual human interaction that might be the next best thing to being there in person with each other. Avatars enable confidence. They may represent how a daughter imagines herself, fully utilizing a child's creativity, or how a wounded father may view himself while adjusting to injury. At times when it is hard to walk into the real-life family room and talk about serious emotions, FOCUS World will help families move closer together by taking advantage of another realm.

Hamlet's Blackberry

Last year, I attended a presentation by William Powers on his book Hamlet's Blackberry. The subject of the book is familiar -- the potential damage of hyper-connectivity -- but I wish to focus on the unique suggestions Powers makes about technology and the family.

In Powers' interview with NPR, he explains the premise of his book. He notes technology does not just refer to  electronic devices; technology has been revolutionizing (and causing anxiety in) society since the beginning of time. Paper was once a new technology that has now assimilated comfortably into our daily lives. We're still toying with the idea of constant connection via the Internet.
Powers advocates the benefits of the new, but he also opines "if we're constantly toggling between people on Facebook and texts and all these new ways of connecting all day long and we never have a sustained connection, it's not really connectedness."

I recall from the lecture I attended that the author was agitated by a pattern he saw in his home at dinnertime. Following each meal, rather than trying to prolong relaxation together, each person in his house would one-by-one trickle away to their own spaces with their laptops, cell phones, etc. The author and father was alarmed by his family's detachment.

Did he cut the cords on everyone's chargers? No, there is good in technology that would have been lost, but over-stimulation takes its toll. Powers promotes balance. Every weekend, Powers' family engages in an "Internet Sabbath" by disconnecting the modem and shutting off cell phones. He believes it gives them the perspective to make his family and himself grateful for what they gain through Internet use.

For me, the idea of a weekly "Internet Sabbath" is romantic, but impractical. It would be irresponsible for me to be away from my email or give up a day to work on an online assignment, not to mention for my parents who are on call most of the time. It's definitely manageable for the duration of one mealtime, however, and I don't see how it could hurt to try a mini-tech-Sabbath out.

Re-linking Families

I consider myself very lucky to have sixteen first cousins and even more second cousins whom I know personally. Yet I often get the sinking feeling that there have to be more out there. I knew my grandfather had started a tree of his family with this information, but it was in print and I had never seen it.

One of my cousins offered to help Papa with the tree -- but he wanted to transfer it online.

Now, my dad's family history is on Geni.com. Geni started in 2007 as a wiki family tree, in which users build a family tree and can invite relatives to the site to collaborate. Users who sign up with an account may add family who are not Geni users, and the users become the "managers" of those profiles. For example, my cousin had to invite me to Geni in association with my entry in order for me to edit my profile and work on the tree.

Geni features a message inbox that adds a level of social networking to the website. The CEO of Geni, Noah Tutak, explains here how he was able to use Geni to learn about and reconnect with his deceased father's family. 

A screenshot from my Geni tree, with my entry indicated by the arrow

I feel like I know family I have never met in person because of this website. Just yesterday, I received a phone call from a second cousin about meeting for the first time. Her profile (wisely) does not show a birth date, but I know the names of her husband and children as well as when she was married. Finding out this way is much easier than calling my lovely but talkative great aunt for the scoop. I somehow know my cousin already, without ever having met her. All this info stays within the family, so there is a sense of security in imparting such private information.

Geni goes into greater depth with more ease than a traditional family tree. Photographs can be added easily to profiles. Clicking on someone's entry takes you to their profile and tells you how exactly you are related. The program is able to compile information such as number of blood relatives, ancestors, and normal relatives that would be very tedious to do manually. Geni sends me email updates about birthdays, new additions, and changes to my family tree. Altering an online tree is so much simpler than editing a traditional tree. 

Most significantly, I think, is that a family's Geni tree cannot be destroyed. While my grandfather's physical files, papers, photographs, and master copy of his tree can be ruined, the Geni tree exists online. Essentially, there are infinite copies of the tree. I or one of my relatives on the site can log in from any computer to share with anyone we choose. The problem of having only one copy which has to be dug out from a file box in your grandfather's closet is negated. It is safer and easier to share family history with Geni.

Geni promises a degree of permanence that makes me wonder, should I fill in my profile more? Would my grandchildren like to have access to a comprehensive record of my life, complete with timeline and photographs? I, myself, treasure old photographs, so I think I might.

An Introduction

Hello world,

I've created this blog to explore something that, with three little brothers and a very close extended family, concerns me -- and anyone, really.

The steady, constant expansion of technology has indisputably redefined human relationships. My specific goal is to examine the good and the bad ways in which family relationships have changed to better fit the digital world.

To start, I thought I'd share this article from Adweek: "The Next Great American Consumer." Journalist Brian Baiker discusses the growing market for media in babies and toddlers. Although he covers advertising, my interest is in the actual technologies mentioned that target children so shockingly young.

Baiker points to the upcoming Vinci handheld -- a handheld, touchscreen, educational electronic device for children 0-4 years of age. It strikes me as the iPad for babies. The Vinci website promotes the device's special features: games promised to build vocabulary and hand-eye coordination, virtual storybooks, and music videos showcasing animated dancing babies. Vinci promises that thanks to careful research, the device will help fulfill your child's learning according to his or her specific age in an engaging manner. The research seems thorough and therefore credible.

But Baiker mentions in his article Susan Linn of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood as saying "there’s no credible evidence that babies learn anything useful from screen media."

Vinci counters this on its website, which reads "simply exposing a child to Mozart’s music won’t turn him or her into a musical prodigy or mathematical genius... learning activities should target social/emotional and cognitive skills as well as language and gross motor abilities." They insist that Vinci is tailored to all areas of childhood development, which may be the difference between past attempts at on-screen education, like the failed Baby Einstein enterprise which Baiker mentions.

Even if Linn is right, and Vinci is a failure, parents won't necessarily see through the advertising. The marketing is quite convincing, and all parents want success for their children made easier by intelligence. Whether Vinci succeeds as a learning tool or not, these parents will also find appeal in the existing idea of the screen as a babysitter. The bonus of tutor will attract parents who may have found the thought of occupying their children with television or computer games distasteful before there was an intellectual benefit.

Some may veritably see a threat in this. Does the device plant dangerous dependence on learning from media and not from their natural early-childhood teachers, their parents? The Vinci is only designed for children four and younger. But if that age is as their makers claim, the critical portion of brain development, what could result is special favor to the Vinci. The Vinci plays with children, entertains them, and teaches them useful skills. It does many of the jobs parents do. I don't mean to suggest that it can totally replace parents as instructors, but it clearly has a strong power over formative minds.

The Vinci has much to prove following its release this month. I can't say I will have much use for it, but I will be interested in its success.